Sterling Cooper

What do you look for in a DVD set? Are you the type of person who expects to see a lot of extras (commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, bloopers, deleted scenes, documentaries, etc) because DVDs allow us to have all of those things and it would be a ripoff for the consumer if we didn't get them? Or are you the type of person who is just happy to have the actual episodes to watch over and over again whenever you want and you don't really care about the extras?

You're in the middle? What a politician.

I lean towards the former for newer shows and towards the latter for older shows. Though I would love to have commentaries and features for older shows, I realize that's not always possible. I ask this because the DVD set for the third season of AMC's 'Mad Men' has cast and crew commentaries for every single episode. Let's take a look at that feature and everything else in the set.

So there's a major character leaving AMC's Mad Men, and this is probably one of those casting decisions that's going to make dedicated Mad Men fans very upset. They might even Twitter or text "OMG!" to their friends.

But I'll put the announcement after the jump for those of you who don't want to know. The person leaving Mad Men is...

The agency is also buying big ads in magazines like Adweek and Brandweek to welcome Sterling Cooper. Has their ever been a show based in a particular industry that is loved by the real-life industry it depicts more than Mad Men?

OK, that headline is a lie. Nothing can hold us over until Mad Men season 4. We'll just have to suffer until next summer.

But these five Mad Men parodies that our friends at URLesque have compiled are pretty clever. Some are better than others (I still think the Sesame Street one could be better). Here are my two favorites (these might be mildly NSFW).

You've read Allison's review and Joel's take on the Mad Men season finale, and I'd just like to add that I think it was the best episode of any TV series I've seen in years. Brilliant, dramatic, funny, even exhilarating. Here's a behind the scenes look at the episode, including interviews with Matthew Weiner and the cast.

That was some Mad Men finale, wasn't it? If you haven't seen it yet, please stop reading now, because there was just too much going on for me not to just launch into some discussion.

OK, I'll wait until after the jump to really get into things. But, suffice to say, the end of season three left some characters going down a pretty well-determined path, but others have entered a sort of limbo state, where we don't quite know what their roles will be in season four.

(S03E13) It's a cold Friday, December 13, 1963. The President's been killed and the world as Don Draper knows it has pretty much fallen apart. For most of the season, the ground has been shifting under Don's feet and he's be holding on, trying to right himself and his life. He's tried with Betty. He's tried for Sally and Bobby and Gene -- at least as much as Don is able to try.

With Conrad Hilton he's never been on a level playing field, and from the moment he was forced to sign the contract, Sterling Cooper has not been his domain as it had been. With this episode, this season finale, all was changed and, perhaps, all has been righted. More after the jump.

When Joel talked to Mad Men creator and writer Matthew Weiner last month, he wouldn't say when or how the show would deal with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We all knew it was coming, since last week's episode was set on Halloween, but I actually thought it would happen in the season finale. But they addressed it tonight.

They say November 22, 1963 is the day America changed, and I would say that the lives of the people in and around Sterling Cooper changed too, in various ways and for various reasons.

(S03E11) Autumn in New York, why does it feel so inviting... That's a great song, and I thought of it while watching the opening of this episode, with the Draper kids all excited about Halloween. And there was also that chill in the air between Don and Betty. Actually, the icy glare was all Betts. She was off to see her brother about selling their father's home, but what was really on Betty's mind was the contents of Don's desk drawer. More on that and gypsy and the hobo, after the jump. By the way, this was a great Mad Men episode.

Reading the plot description for this week's Mad Men, "The Gypsy and the Hobo," and it says that a former client returns to Sterling Cooper and Betty takes the kids on a trip. I'm assuming the trip is without Don/Dick. I wonder if she'll return.

Here's a sneak peek of the episode, and I think it shows the client in question. Not sure who the gypsy refers to or the hobo (perhaps the one Dick met as a kid?).

I once had a boss, a rather bad guy, who used to brag that he was a good person because he went to church every Sunday. I used to say to myself, "yeah, because you have to go to church every Sunday." I thought of that after Betty said that above quote to Sally. I'm not very religious, but if people have to go to church every week because of the bad things they do, then Betty and Don are two people who should be going.

(S03E09) Nobody was getting any sleep, or so it seemed, and many people were acting like babies who wanted what they wanted when they wanted it.

Conrad Hilton has become more of a headache to Don, and the way he's being played, he's very Howard Hughes-like to me. Eccentric, powerful, demanding and hard to read. For a master player like Don, it has been unnerving to have Connie pull his strings. Don doesn't like being a marionette.

Don wasn't the only one having his strings yanked. Lucky Strike, in the form of client Lee Garner, Jr., pushed Pete and Harry around, but it was Sal who suffered. And Henry discovered that Betty was more complicated than any Ossining housewife he ever knew. More after the jump.

One of my favorite scenes from Mad Men this season was the one where Don barked at Peggy. Don doesn't usually explode at people (it simmers underneath) and he and Peggy always had a great relationship, so it was shocking to see him dismiss her that way. Things aren't any better on this Sunday's episode, as this scene below shows. Though to be fair the guys get the brunt of Don's insults.

It's a good scene, plus I'm a sucker for Frank Sinatra references and this episode is called "Wee Small Hours."

I think my favorite episodes of Mad Men are the ones that have a nice balance of Draper household drama and Sterling Cooper advertising drama. It seemed that this episode was going to tilt a lot - too much - towards the former, but about 20 minutes in, both worlds came together in unexpected ways -- Betty going on the business trip to Rome with Don and Pete running into ... well, someone at the department store. We'll talk about that more after the jump.

I like the plot description for this new episode of Mad Men, "Souvenir." It says "Don takes Betty on a business trip and Pete helps a neighbor in his building." I like that summary because 1) it doesn't really tell you anything but you're intrigued, and 2) it describes two things that have never happened before. Don taking Betty on a business trip with him??

Vincent Kartheiser is so good in this scene below, and the writing is just so smart.